ALA Photos, Round Three and A Hero

We’ll start tonight’s picture show with the gorgeous smiles of Kevin Lewis and Holly Black.

Yes, he’s Holly’s editor, too.

If you’re a teacher or librarian, you want to know the good people of TeachingBooks.net. TeachingBooks ” is a time-saving portal to thousands of online resources you can use to explore children’s and young adult books and their authors.” It has loads of terrific material about authors and their books. I particularly adore the Author Name Pronunciation Guide.

But the absolute highlight of the conference was an unexpected, serendipitous meeting with an author whose books are among my very favorites. As I walked on the conference floor, the loud speaker announced that this Incredible Author was about to give a reading from her new book. I sprinted, sending librarians and publicists scattering like bowling pins. (I do apologize for an injury or loss of dignity I may have caused.)

The new book?

Quakeland (for grown-ups, this time).

It was Her. Francesca Lia Block. She of the Magic Words. Lanky Lankstress. She of the Best Use of Descriptive Language EVAH! Weetzie Bat. Baby Be-Bop. Witch Baby…

I scored a seat in the front row. (Again, profuse apologies to anyone I may have thrown to the ground.)

After listening to her delicious reading, I trooped along with a horde of fans to her signing, which was several miles away at the other end of the convention hall. Picture Make Way for Ducklings, with FLB as Mama Duck and the rest of us waddling behind, quacking “It’s Her. It’s really Her. Can you believe it’s Her? Omigah, It’s really, really Her.”

Me? Total raving, lunatic fangrrl. Her? A little frightened, perhaps. I am not subtle in these situations. I am the exact opposite of cool.

But I settled down and made nice for one photo.

Instead of calling security and having me dragged away, she actually signed my book.

And that’s how I met one of my heroes.

Tomorrow is going to be a hard day for many of you to find your fifteen minutes. Think about where you can steal the time as you are falling asleep tonight. Tell everyone you’re going inside to get more mustard, then hide in the bathroom and write, if you have to.

Wow. Beyond wow. I actually gasped audibly when I read whom you met, loud enough for Molly to come running in to ask what was up. Her books are so amazing, her writing is absolutely lyrical. She paints magic with words. How awesome that you got to meet her.

Oh bummer! I’m sorry I missed that! There’s just too much going on at ALA I need to be able to split myself into around 8 bodies to try to see and get to more fun things! Also, a way to have extra hours for sleeping that don’t cut into events and tours and other fun stuff!

P.S. Does editing what I’ve been working on before count as 15 minutes of writing? If so I’m doing ok. If not, I’ve got a bit of work to do to catch up…